Rollback Policy Update for all Diablo III Regions
A very serious and kind of scary policy change is coming in a few days. Because of the numerous scams players got used to doing with fake account hacks, Blizzard had to update D3's rollback policy. This is needed in order to discourage such actions, but in the meantime players are already afraid of the moment their account will get hacked and their epic characters will be left with only 10 million gold after the reroll (not to mention the materials).

Over the past year, we've made some changes to our account rollback policy for players in the Asia, Americas, and Europe regions. These updates were an added step in protecting the in-game economy from the noted rise of false compromised account claims by players attempting to duplicate items. To date, these policy changes have been effective in helping to reduce the number of duplicated items in the game.

On August 6, we'll be further updating the policy to include a cap on gold and commodities that are restored as part of the process, adding further protections for the game economy.

[What's Changing Starting Tuesday, August 6]

All character equipment (including weapons and armor) restored via the Diablo III rollback service will continue to be bound to the restored account. The restored items cannot be traded with other players or posted on the auction house, but they can still be shared with other characters on the account and sold to merchant NPCs.

Additionally, the below changes to gold and commodities restoration will also occur:

Gems:

Each gem type (Amethyst, Emerald, Ruby,Topaz) up to Perfect Square will be restored up to a total maximum count of 500 of that type (e.g. 500 Flawless Amethysts). Marquise gems will be restored in full, as they are Bind-on-Account. Higher level gems will be restored up to the following limits:

Radiant Square – 250

Star – 100

Flawless Star – 50

Perfect Star – 25

Radiant Star – 10

Crafting Materials:

Each type of crafting material will be restored up to a total maximum count of 500 (e.g. 500 Subtle Essence).

Each type of training material will be restored up to a total of 500 (e.g. 500 Tomes of Blacksmithing).

Each type of crafting plan will be restored up to a total of 1 (e.g. 1 plan for Cain’s Fate).

Gold:

Gold restored will be limited to 10 million.

As always we are committed to continuing to monitor the overall health and economy of the game and make additional tweaks if necessary.

[Protecting Your Account]

Considering that the rollback service is intended to help players whose accounts have been compromised, we obviously wish that no one ever needed to use it. The best way to help protect yourself from account compromise is to secure your PC and Battle.net account, for example by adding a Battle.net Authenticator. While no security measure is completely foolproof, we've often found that many accounts are compromised a second time simply because players do not take any action to protect themselves after being compromised the first time.

To learn more about the Battle.net Authenticator and some best practices for securing your PC against viruses and malware, check out the links below.

"Special Announcement" to Be Made at GamesCom 2013
A 'special announcement' will be made at GamesCom 2013 this month and it looks like it's going to be something big and D3 related. Blizzard sent an invitation to the press with this 'teaser':

“You are invited to join Blizzard Entertainment at a press conference on the first day of gamescom 2013. We’re making a special announcement that’s sure to capture the attention of the Heavens, Burning Hells and all the shadowed places that lie between.”

In order to not be speculative, we'll have to wait and see what it really is. DiabloFans.com will cover Blizzard's GamesCom attendance the whole time and especially on August 21 - the date we've been hyped for.

New MP10 Uber Bosses Kill Record
Invis, Avoid, Det0x and Duus89 have beaten the last world record for MP10 Uber Bosses by a considerable amount! The new time is 56 seconds, which is an amazing time for killing 6 bosses with hundreds of millions of HP. Check out their the video below and leave your feedback in their dedicated topic (where you can also check each of their Twitch profiles).

loot 2.0 (aka the everything is account bound patch) will be released with the expansion that will drop xmas of this year.

I'm dreading the announcement of everything being account bound because I want to buy the expansion. I'm leaning toward expansion announcement though, or at least trailer. They better no be hyping up the PS4/Xbox one announcement.

I reckon this big announcement will be something we've all expected or heard of before I'm still excited nonetheless!

Private Mod Note
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Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack

Bashiok - Blizzard Representative - 08/01/2011 -"So how many skill combinations are there now? Well taking into account 6 active skills, all the rune combinations, and 3 passives we currently expect each class to have roughly 2,285,814,795,264 different build combinations."

"Hey, I thought you'd like the witty irony of grub-on-glowie violence!"

loot 2.0 (aka the everything is account bound patch) will be released with the expansion that will drop xmas of this year.

Say what you want about the itemization patch, but you're absolutely nuts if you think Blizzard is going to release an expansion after a year and a half of dev time and only a couple months after the announcement. For reference, Heart of the Swarm took almost three years.

D3X1 will premiere at gamescom, just like D3 premiered at the WWI 2008, and not at BlizzCon 2008.

I'm sure it's something nice either way. By the way what's WWI? I read it was World War 1 but I know it's not that haha.

Private Mod Note
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Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack

Bashiok - Blizzard Representative - 08/01/2011 -"So how many skill combinations are there now? Well taking into account 6 active skills, all the rune combinations, and 3 passives we currently expect each class to have roughly 2,285,814,795,264 different build combinations."

"Hey, I thought you'd like the witty irony of grub-on-glowie violence!"

Security tips for everyone that is still afraid of getting hacked in 2013:

1: Get an Authenticater.... STAT!
2: Don't use the same password on forums / mail / games = 3 different passwords
3: Don't maniacally click on every link you see!
4: Run an antivirus now and again, Hitmanpro + AVG will keep your PC cleaner than a house full of people with Mysophobia (yes look this one up!)
5: Be wary of any executables, if you're not sure. Google it. Scan it. Ask your mom about it.
6: ?
7: Profit, sort of.

Private Mod Note
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Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack

The little boat gently drifted across the pond exactly the way a bowling ball wouldn’t...

D3X1 will premiere at gamescom, just like D3 premiered at the WWI 2008, and not at BlizzCon 2008.

I'm sure it's something nice either way. By the way what's WWI? I read it was World War 1 but I know it's not that haha.

We also know that there will be a D3 expansion, so...

Ah yes, now I know what you mean by that. Well I guess you could say it probably will be an expansion announcement. Considering they've already made a big announcement for the console version.
I mean we know that there will be an expansion, but the expansion itself hasn't been announced!

Private Mod Note
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Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack

Bashiok - Blizzard Representative - 08/01/2011 -"So how many skill combinations are there now? Well taking into account 6 active skills, all the rune combinations, and 3 passives we currently expect each class to have roughly 2,285,814,795,264 different build combinations."

"Hey, I thought you'd like the witty irony of grub-on-glowie violence!"

D3X1 will premiere at gamescom, just like D3 premiered at the WWI 2008, and not at BlizzCon 2008.

WWI was the BlizzCon equivalent for Europe/Asia. It was a Blizzard event and was appropriate for such an announcement. A generic gaming convention... I don't know.

Generally speaking, gamescom > BlizzCon, because gamescom is the world’s largest trade fair and event highlight for interactive games and entertainment.

And lets not forget that Blizzard needs to keep the interest in the game afloat, because that "Loot 2.0" blog is still some time away imo. I expect the D3X1 announcement, a cinematic trailer featuring the 6th class, and a press conference about the class and the main features with "more details and a hands-on demo coming at BlizzCon".

Generally speaking, gamescom > BlizzCon, because gamescom is the world’s largest trade fair and event highlight for interactive games and entertainment.

And lets not forget that Blizzard needs to keep the interest in the game afloat, because that "Loot 2.0" blog is still some time away imo. I expect the D3X1 announcement, a cinematic trailer featuring the 6th class, and a press conference about the class and the main features with "more details and a hands-on demo coming at BlizzCon".

You need to take into consideration that Blizzard have never announced a new game, expansion or even feature at a different "Con" than theirs. Apart from Hearthstone, which was announced at a trading card fair.

D3X1 will premiere at gamescom, just like D3 premiered at the WWI 2008, and not at BlizzCon 2008.

WWI was the BlizzCon equivalent for Europe/Asia. It was a Blizzard event and was appropriate for such an announcement. A generic gaming convention... I don't know.

Generally speaking, gamescom > BlizzCon, because gamescom is the world’s largest trade fair and event highlight for interactive games and entertainment.

And lets not forget that Blizzard needs to keep the interest in the game afloat, because that "Loot 2.0" blog is still some time away imo. I expect the D3X1 announcement, a cinematic trailer featuring the 6th class, and a press conference about the class and the main features with "more details and a hands-on demo coming at BlizzCon".

I'm thinking something along these lines is more and more likely. Interest and activity in the game has plummeted over the last few months, and I think Blizzard wants to do something to remind everybody that the game still exists and there are cool things coming. All of the fansite events, interviews, etc. aren't enough to reach the casual gamers that don't visit fansites so have never seen or heard of any of these interviews. An announcement followed by a cool trailer will get just enough press coverage to re-ignite some interest in the game, which is exactly what Blizzard needs.

Generally speaking, gamescom > BlizzCon, because gamescom is the world’s largest trade fair and event highlight for interactive games and entertainment.

And lets not forget that Blizzard needs to keep the interest in the game afloat, because that "Loot 2.0" blog is still some time away imo. I expect the D3X1 announcement, a cinematic trailer featuring the 6th class, and a press conference about the class and the main features with "more details and a hands-on demo coming at BlizzCon".

You need to take into consideration that Blizzard have never announced a new game, expansion or even feature at a different "Con" than theirs. Apart from Hearthstone, which was announced at a trading card fair.

Times are changing, and Blizzard needs to adapt if they want to survive in a rapidly growing market where they don't have the monopoly on good games anymore (D3 "debacle", ey?).